Filling-machine valve.



PATENTED AUG. 30, 1904.

APPLICATION FILED DEO.14, 1903.

NO MODEL.

I wan/10110111100004 p a g 5 E E i a 8, a 1 w z z MW UNITED STATES Patented August 30, 1904.

PATENT OFFICE.

FRANK C. H. STRASBURGEB, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR .TO THE BOTTLERS SPECIAL MACHINERY COMPANY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, A

CORPORATION OF ILLINOIS.

FILLING-MACHINE \IIALVE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 768,961, dated August 30, 1904.

Application filed December 14, 1903. Serial No. 185,112. (No model.)

To all whmn it may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK C. H. STEAsBUR- GER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Filling-Machine Valves, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to filling-machines; and its object is primarily to provide for equalizing thepressure in the bottle being filled with the pressure in the tank or other receptacle from which the liquid under pressure is drawn to prevent the liquid from squirting into the bottle, which would tend to produce foam and be otherwise objectionable.

Another object of the invention is to provide a filling-Valve which will accommodate and automatically adjust itself to bottles of diflerent heights and to bottles of a certain size which vary more or less in height; and a further object is to prevent the liquid from overflowing from the bottle into the air-tube during the filling operation.

\Vith these and other objects in View, which will be fully pointed out hereinafter, the invention consists in the novel parts and in the construction and arrangement thereof hereinafter described, and illustrated in one form in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 is a sectional view showing the invention and so much of a filling-machine as is necessary to understand the operation. Fig. 2 is an enlarged sectional view of the fillingvalve. Fig. 3 is a sectional view on line 3 3 of Fig. 2.

Like numerals of reference designate corresponding parts in the several figures, and referring thereto is a liquid tank or receptacle to which the filling-valve is connected, and 11 is a bottle supported on a rest 12, which is carried by the vertically-movable stem 13. The bottle is raised to operate the valve by a cam 14:, which operates a cranklever 15, connected by links 16 to the stem 13. This means for raising the bottle is selected here simply for the purpose of illustrating one means for raising the bottle.

The filling-valve comprises abody 17 ,which is screwed into an opening 18 in the bottom 19 of the tank, and it is provided with a central bore 20, in which the filling-tube21operates longitudinally. Stuffing-boxes 22 and 22 are provided at top and bottom of the body to make tight joints with the filling-tube, while at the same time permitting the tube to move in the body in the manner hereinafter described. A cap 23 is mounted on the upper end of the filling-tube and provided with a seat 2 1 on the body. A head 25 is rigidly fastened to the filling-tube beneath the body of the fillingvalve, and a spring 26, acting on the upper side of the head, normally holds the head in its lowered position. A passage 27 is provided within a part of the head around the filling-tube and extends laterally at 27 to communicate with an air-tube 28, which projects upward through a stuffing-box 29 to operate the air-valve 30,,located in the bottom of the tank. This air-valve is arranged in the lower end of a housing 31, which is screwed into the body 17 and incloses a spring 32,, acting on the valve to hold it normally closed.

The upper end of the housing is extended above the highest level which the liquid may attain in the tank. The air-valveis of polygonal shape and rests upon a seat 33, and the upper end of the air-tube 28 is cut away, as

shown at 3&, to provide a lateral opening when the tube engages and unseats the valve. The filling-tube is closed at its upper end by the cap 23 and is provided below the cap with a number of perforations 36, through which the liquid passes from the tank into the fillingtube when said tube has been projected far enough into the tank to bring the perforations above the stuffing-box 22. The stuffing-box serves to prevent the liquid in the tank from flowing into the filling-tube when the latter is in its normal lowered position, Fig. 2, and the cap is provided as an additional means for To prevent the possibility of any liquid overflowing from the bottle into the air-tube 28 and housing 31, I provide a ball-valve 37 within a cap 38, which normally rests upon the pins 39 to permit air to flow around it. Liquid flowing up through the passage 27 will raise the ball against the lower end of the tube 28, and thus prevent the liquid from flowing up into the tube. I have shown and described a ball; but it will be apparent that instead of a ball I may use a block or any other device adapted to operate to close the air-tube.

In operation the bottle is placed upon the rest, with the lower end of the filling-tube entering its mouth, as shown in Fig. 1, and when the bottle is raised by any suitable means the mouth of the bottle will engage the seat 35 on the lower face of the head and move the head upward. causing the air-tube to unseat the air-valve 30 before the perforated part of the iilling-tube has been pushed above the stufling-box 22. By first opening communication between the bottle and the top of the tank through the unseating of the airvalve the pressure in the tank and bottle is equalized before the liquid begins to flow into the bottle, and consequently the liquid will flow from the tank into the filling-tube through the openings 36 in the upper end thereof and into the bottle by gravity without producing foam, and thereby permitting the bottle to be completely filled with liquid. When the bottle is lowered, the spring 26 forces the head and the filling-tube down to their normal positions, and the air-tube is carried away from the air-valve 30, so that the spring 32 may reseat it.

The rest 12 may of course be adjustably mounted on the stem 13, so that it can be readily adjusted to accommodate bottles which vary considerably in height, but, generally speaking, this rest may be rigidly mounted on the stem, because the valve itself is adapted to accommodate bottles which vary in height to an extent as great as the distance between the upper face of the head and the lower end of the body, and this is a very important feature of the invention, because bottles which are supposed to be of a standard height commonly vary in height more or less and sometimes as much as half an'inch.

The invention is very simple in construction and operation and can be utilized in a great variety of machines, as will be apparent to those skilled in the art, and it is adapted to entirely overcome the trouble resulting from variations in the heights of bottles,which may prevent filling-valves operated by the bottle from opening at all or properly working.

ithout limiting myself to the exact construction and arrangement of parts herein shown and described, whatI claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is--- 1. A filling-valve comprising a body, an airvalve, a normally closed filling-tube movable in the body and provided with perforations in its side, a head rigid with the filling-tube, an air-tube connected with the head, said head being adapted to be engaged and moved by a bottle to cause the air-tube to open the air-valve before the filling-tube has moved sufficiently to expose the perforations therein.

2. A filling-valve comprising a body, a normally closed filling-tube movable longitudi nally in the body, a head rigid on the tube and provided with an air-passage, an air-tube carried by the head and communicating with. said air-passage, and an air-valve adapted to be unseated by the air-tube when the head is moved to open the filling-tube.

3. A filling-valve comprising a body, afilling-tube movable longitudinally in the body and provided with side openings at the end inclosed in said body, a cap on the upper end of said tube and having a seat on said body around the tube, a head rigid with the lillingtube beneath the body, a spring acting on said head to hold the can normally seated and the filling-tube closed, an air-passage in the head, an air-tube connected with said passage, and a spring-pressed air-valve adapted to be unseated by the air-tube before the filling-tubc is opened.

4. A filling-valve comprising a normally closed filling-tube, a movable head adapted to be engaged by the bottle to open the fillingtube, an air-passage in said head, a'n air-tube carried by the head and communicating with said air-passage, and a valve adapted to be engaged and unseated by said air-tube.

5. A filling-valve comprising a normally closed longitudinally-movable filling-tube, a head adapted to be engaged by the bottle to operate the tube and provided with an airpassage, a spring-pressed air-valve, and an air-tube carried by the head and communicating with said air-passage therein and having its upper end arranged to unseat the air-valve before the filling-tube is opened and provided with lateral openings to establish communication through the air-valve with the bottle when said air-tube engages and unseats said air-valve.

6. A filling-valve comprising a body, a normally closed filling-tube movable therein, an air-valve, a head rigid with the filling-tube, an air-tube connected to the head and adapted to open the air-valve, a spring acting to hold the filling-tube in its lowered closed position, and a cap on said filling-tube to hold it in the body.

7. A filling-valve comprising a body, a filling-tube movable in said body and closed at its upper end and provided with perforations in its side, means for closing said perforations, an air-valve, a head rigid on the filling-tube, and an air-tube carried by the head and adapted to open said air-valve.

. 8. A filling-valve comprising a body, afill- ITO ing-tube movable in a bore in said body and I and adapted to open said valve, and a spring provided with perforations in its side near its acting on the head to hold the filling-tube in upper end, a cap on the upper end of the 511- lowered'position.

fling-tube to engage the body; a stufiing-box' FRANK C. H. STRASBURGER. 5 around the tube to close communication with WVitnesses:

said perforations, a head rigid on said tube, W'M. OBELT,

an air-valve, an air-tube carried bythe head (J. J. NORTHRUP. 

